Flashback: Mother Served Jail Time for Enrolling Child in Better School District

NIKLAS HALLE'N/AFP/GettyTOM CICCOTTA15 Mar 2019

A story about a mother serving jail time for fraudulently enrolling her daughters in a better public school district has resurfaced amidst the college bribery scandal.

The college admissions bribery scandal has reignited debate about whether or not the American elite face consequences for their actions in our criminal justice system. 50 parents were charged by the Department of Justice in a wide-ranging plot to sneak their children into some of the nation’s best universities.

In 2011, Kelley Williams-Bolar, a black woman, served nine days in jail after it was revealed that she used her father’s address instead of her own to enroll her children in a better public school district.

“It’s overwhelming. I’m exhausted,” Williams-Bolar said when she was sentenced to jail time. “I did this for them, so there it is. I did this for them.”

Williams-Bolar was asked to pay a $30,000 fine to cover the expenses that her daughters allegedly used at the school she wasn’t supposed to attend. After she refused to pay the fine, she was sentenced to jail time. “I don’t think they wanted money,” Williams-Bolar said at the time. “They wanted me to be an example.”

Williams-Bolar’s story has resurfaced in connection to the college admissions bribery scandal that involves celebrities Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. The parents involved allegedly spent up to $6 million to have their children fraudulently admitted to America’s top universities.